Contents

There were 435 U.S. House seats up for election in 2012. Ballotpedia staff measured the competitiveness of the primary elections based on two factors: number of contested primaries and number of incumbents facing a primary challenge.

This page is used to provide readers with a competitiveness index similar to that used in Ballotpedia's state legislative Competitiveness Study. The results below illustrate how many primaries were contested. The first set of results represents how many of all national House of Representative primary elections were contested. The second set counts only those primaries in which one of the candidates is the incumbent member.

Summary of results

51.40% of incumbents who ran for re-election faced a primary challenge (202 of 393).

In 11 states, no incumbents faced a primary. The state with the most representatives where no incumbent faced a primary was Connecticut with five seats.

Full results of primary competitiveness

Contested House of Representatives primaries

This figure was calculated from the percentage of major party races in each state that were contested (races in which all primary candidates cannot advance to the general election). In 2012, 54.31% of party primaries were contested (466 of 858).

Contested Primaries during the 2012 Congressional Elections

Individual State Results

Nationwide Cumulative Results

State

Primary date

# of seats

Democratic contested primaries

Republican contested primaries

Contested Major Party primaries

% contested primaries

Nationwide Contested primaries

Total possible party primaries so far

Nationwide Contested primaries %

Delaware

9/11/2012

1

0

1

1

50.00%

466

858

54.31%

New Hampshire

9/11/2012

2

0

2

2

50.00%

465

856

54.32%

Rhode Island

9/11/2012

2

2

2

4

100.00%

463

852

54.34%

Massachusetts

9/6/2012

9

4

5

9

50.00%

459

848

54.13%

Alaska

8/28/2012

1

1

1

2

100.00%

450

830

54.22%

Arizona

8/28/2012

9

7

8

15

83.33%

448

828

54.11%

Vermont

8/28/2012

1

0

0

0

0.00%

433

810

53.46%

Wyoming

8/21/2012

1

0

0

0

0.00%

433

808

53.59%

Connecticut

8/14/2012

5

1

2

3

30.00%

433

806

53.72%

Florida

8/14/2012

27

7

11

18

33.33%

430

796

54.02%

Minnesota

8/14/2012

8

3

5

8

50.00%

412

742

55.53%

Wisconsin

8/14/2012

8

1

1

2

12.50%

404

726

55.65%

Hawaii

8/11/2012

2

2

2

4

100.00%

402

710

56.62%

Kansas

8/7/2012

4

2

0

2

25.00%

398

706

56.37%

Michigan

8/7/2012

14

7

6

13

46.43%

396

698

56.73%

Missouri

8/7/2012

8

3

7

10

62.50%

383

670

57.16%

Washington

8/7/2012

10

10

10

20

100.00%

373

654

57.03%

Tennessee

8/2/2012

9

3

7

10

55.56%

353

634

55.68%

Georgia

7/31/2012

14

4

8

12

42.86%

343

616

55.68%

Colorado

6/26/2012

7

0

3

3

21.43%

331

588

56.29%

New York

6/26/2012

27

10

5

15

27.78%

328

574

57.14%

Oklahoma

6/26/2012

5

3

4

7

70.00%

313

520

60.19%

Utah

6/26/2012

4

3

4

7

87.50%

306

510

60.00%

Maine

6/12/2012

2

0

2

2

50.00%

299

502

59.56%

Nevada

6/12/2012

4

2

3

5

62.50%

297

498

59.64%

North Dakota

6/12/2012

1

1

0

1

50.00%

292

490

59.59%

South Carolina

6/12/2012

7

3

2

5

35.71%

291

488

59.63%

Virginia

6/12/2012

11

2

4

6

27.27%

286

474

60.34%

California

6/5/2012

53

45

45

90

84.91%

280

452

61.95%

Iowa

6/5/2012

4

1

2

3

37.50%

190

346

54.91%

Montana

6/5/2012

1

1

1

2

100.00%

187

338

55.33%

New Jersey

6/5/2012

12

6

6

12

50.00%

185

336

55.06%

New Mexico

6/5/2012

3

1

1

2

33.33%

173

312

55.45%

South Dakota

6/5/2012

1

1

0

1

50.00%

171

306

55.88%

Texas

5/29/2012

36

16

24

40

55.56%

170

304

55.92%

Arkansas

5/22/2012

4

2

1

3

37.50%

130

232

56.03%

Kentucky

5/22/2012

6

4

2

6

50.00%

127

224

56.70%

Idaho

5/15/2012

2

2

2

4

100.00%

121

212

57.08%

Nebraska

5/15/2012

3

1

3

4

66.67%

117

208

56.25%

Oregon

5/15/2012

5

2

3

5

50.00%

113

202

55.94%

Indiana

5/8/2012

9

8

6

14

77.78%

108

192

56.25%

North Carolina

5/8/2012

13

8

10

18

69.23%

94

174

54.02%

West Virginia

5/8/2012

3

1

2

3

50.00%

76

148

51.35%

Pennsylvania

4/24/2012

18

6

2

8

22.22%

73

142

51.41%

Maryland

4/3/2012

8

7

7

14

87.50%

65

106

61.32%

Illinois

3/20/2012

18

14

6

20

55.56%

51

90

56.67%

Alabama

3/13/2012

7

2

4

6

42.86%

31

54

57.41%

Mississippi

3/13/2012

4

2

3

5

62.50%

25

40

62.50%

Ohio

3/6/2012

16

10

10

20

62.50%

20

32

62.50%

Contested House of Representatives primaries involving incumbents

This figure illustrates the percentage of incumbents who ran for re-election who faced competition in the primary election. In 2012, 51.40% of incumbents who ran for re-election faced a primary challenge (202 of 393).

See also

Footnotes

↑Washington is one of three states with blanket primaries. Because of this, a greater percentage of primaries are classified as contested because there is only one primary for all candidates regardless of party. We classify a primary as contested if there are at least three candidates on the ballot. In other words, do voters have a choice at the polls.